Hannah Alexander 10 Year Anniversary / FlossTube 3 (But in Text)
- Pinky (Ashley Mae)
- 2 days ago
- 19 min read
I have a lot to go over. I'm going to put a topic list up here on the screen.
The video that we're looking at right now here isn't a tutorial. Uh, this is Hannah Alexander's Zelda Halo. It's based on her, uh, Tears of the Kingdom designs that she did. So, it's not a tutorial, but I am open about my steps for what I do. First thing I do here, it's not in the video, but I import it into my program. Then I size it, you know, make sure everything is right. Usually, this is based on the character's eyes to make sure that - that detail is set. For this particular one, I was sizing it based on the beads in her hair. Uh, I didn't want to just draw gold lines between her little hair clip and the side there. So, I was making sure that petite gold beads could fit there.
At that stage, I then trace over everything. In the video here - because I shift between tracing on the artwork and then just sort of free drawing over the grid - when I sped the video up, it created a very intense flashing thing. So, I went through (it's taken me ages) and manually removed all of the flashing that was caused by that. I hope that I succeeded in removing all of that. Uh, but who knows? I guess you'll know by the end!
Once everything is traced, then I start going back through with like a false color. It's color mapping, right? These aren't going to be final colors for the grand majority. They're just there as placeholders. And then you can see on the lower left on occasion - more so towards, like, especially when I'm working on the sky in this particular piece - I'm making little dots of where each of these colors are and labeling them. This is a semi-new method that I've been using with my mom so that she can better understand what I'm talking about when I'm like, "this color, uh, it's I know that it's neon blue right now, but it's gonna be this, you know - whatever - a soft orange, according to the color dot." Then when all the color mapping is done, I send all this information over to my mom. And this, again, is going to be a part not in the video but, she picks out a bunch of colors matching the dots and matching the placement. She sends me videos back describing that, uh, and her choices, and then I do my own color correction. And I send that information back to her. She confirms that or changes more, etc. Until we're happy with the colors.
When all the colors are said and done, at that point, I'm able to go through and pick up all the symbols, you know, make sure it's readable. The very last stages are just like the admin parts. Uh, and I - I don't show that in this recording. Um, but that's like compiling it into a PDF, making sure, you know, the Excel sheet with all of the materials is there. Making sure the chart with all the symbol key is there. Putting together a SAGA file if people want that. Making sure the Pattern Keeper file exists. All of that administrative stuff. Making the cover sheet, putting it on the website, all of that stuff happens at the very end. I don't really count those hours towards the art creation because it's more the product creation.
So, like, when I tell you that this pattern took 35 hours to make, that's counting all from the beginning of importing to the end of picking symbols. In this instance, it - it includes the twelve hours that Mom took picking colors on this one. These days, because I don't live with my mom, I don't - I'm not really, like, on top of her for keeping track of her time.
So, doing voice recording I think is going to be easier than doing video. I don't know, right? I'm still at the beginning of YouTube, so I don't know how often this is going to work. Uh, maybe this will be a bust. I'm able to kind of, like, lean in to my microphone better. When I was doing the video, I - I really need to like sit back and, like, have at least some amount of posture in my chair to be able to be seen on the video. I also need to like make sure I'm dressed properly. I need to make sure that my background is at least semi-decent. The rest of my stuff from Arizona arrived a couple months ago and so my backdrop right now is still, like, a bunch of unpacked boxes.
It didn't seem correct with all of the things that I need to talk about today to put double the work of recording two - two videos, right? The process video for Zelda Halo and a video of me sitting here talking. It just didn't - it's too much work, right? So, I'm doing audio this time.
So, the first big news to talk about is that I have a new bead supplier, String Theory Needlearts. My previous bead supplier, Wendy, retired, and String Theory Needlearts, stepped up to the plate. They volunteered. I was like, "Okay, but, it's a lot. Um, don't, uh, don't overprep because there's - there's a lot going on here!" And a lot of my patterns, um, they call for, like, you know, some of them call for over a thousand beads. Uh, Tiana, I think is one of those. Kida, maybe. The Sailor Moon with her white dress, perhaps. Some of them also just call for like... one bead. And I said, "Would would you guys be willing to - kind of break up bead boxes, you know, the little Mill Hill bead collection things, and just be able to send someone, like - it won't be one bead because if they drop it or lose it, you know, that would suck! But could you - would you guys be willing to break up those containers to make this easier on the customers?" And they were uh, you know, willing to do the extra work. So, they're going to be making bespoke bead embellishment kits depending on the pattern. They're going to be made to order because I warned them about the prep because there's just so much. I would hate for them to prep up, you know, like twenty kits for each pattern and then, you know, just have them laying around. Like, that would be so much work.
So, String Theory Needlearts can also supply lots of other stuff. They're totally open to special orders. Um, you just have to email them or - I'm sure they have a contact form there on their website. They said, uh, it doesn't even have to be stitching related, like, all kinds of craft stuff. They - they've had people ask about needle felting, bobbin lace, polymer clay, whatever it is that you're after. Uh, it doesn't hurt to reach out and ask.
In the future, we're going to be trying to make specialty thread kits as well. String Theory Needlearts and myself will be trying our very best to put together Kreinik kits to go with my patterns. We won't be breaking up spools. Maybe because they have access to all of the material lists... maybe we could do it where like, yeah, this pattern only uses two stitches, but the - this other pattern also uses this color. Maybe they could just make it - you're buying one spool instead of two for - right? Even though you're buying for two separate patterns. Maybe that could be a thing. I don't know. I don't know! It's for the future.
They also are a source for like the ThreadWorx threads. I don't use those in a ton of my designs, but I would like to. The ThreadWorx overdyes on the Kreinik. It's - they're so pretty. Um, and ThreadWorx was super nice to work with a couple of times that I've been able to talk to them. Like, they're very nice.
So, I also have a new newsletter, which is part of my excuse for not making a YouTube video since the last one. The big thing for me starting YouTube was because I didn't have access to my newsletter thing with Wix, my web host. They they wanted to charge me, uh, way too much money to keep up with my newsletter. The new newsletter host is Kit. It's a much, much more affordable option and I think it's a lot nicer.
There is a brand new Patreon. I was really hesitant to start a Patreon because most of what I do is already so public and for the most part free. Obviously, most patterns aren't free, but, you know, like, tutorials and whatnot are. Um, and I'm, like, in my mind, a lot of what happens with Patreon is, like, behind the scenes stuff or, like, extra videos or, uh, some, like, physical merch, you know? And I was just, like, I - I don't - what do I have to offer with Patreon?
So, no one has enough money right now, right? Myself included. Being an artist is hard, even if you're a successful artist. The move across the country really drained my funds, and I knew it was going to, um, it wasn't, like, a surprise to me. And I knew that the year that you move is, like, double the outgo than you would have like any other year, right? A moving year is always super expensive. I knew this was coming. But I haven't really been able to recoup those, uh, those expenses and, you know, it's kind of freaking me out. And I didn't want to - I really don't want to go out and, like, get a job-job at an alteration shop or, um, something, you know, not so suited to my skill set. Um, an entry-level job as it were. I really don't want to do that.
The last time that I took a quote-unquote "break" from cross stitch pattern making, uh, I had my physical alteration shop, which was, um, a glorious amount of experience, but quite detrimental for the rest of everything I was trying to do. The main point with Patreon is to kind of give me some extra support. The main draw I think for people, um, the extra-ness of it will just be Early Access to patterns and, um, discounts on those Early Access patterns.
The Early Access pattern that's coming up right now is a Hannah Alexander, uh, smaller design to try to kind of get it started 'cause I have so much else happening right now. And this is the little Ghibli kuh-dough-mas? Kuh-da-mas? Kodamas. Um, I think that these are from the Princess Mononoke. I'm not super familiar with all of the Ghibli movies. They're on my to-do list, I just...
I know - I know that these guys glow. So, I'll be using glow-in-the-dark thread for the design, but it's - it's a smaller one. Uh, when this pattern releases publicly, it'll be a $10 design. If you're part of the Early Access Patreon tier, this pattern will be $5 and you'll have the privilege and exclusivity to stitch it before anyone else gets to stitch it and post, you know, on social media and be like, "Haha, look how cool this is." And maybe other people will come and join and maybe other people will just wait for it to become public. You know, who knows?
There's a new wishlist function on makeitpink.net. When I very first opened the website, this was not a thing. I couldn't do it. Uh, now I can. There's, uh, not a lot of control for me on this function. Like, I can't see how many people added something to their wishlist, which is kind of a bummer. But, for you, personally, you can go to a product and click the little heart and then it'll be on your wishlist on the account on my website. And then, you know, maybe that'll make it easier for you to keep track of which patterns you want and which patterns you don't have yet, etc. Just a convenience on your end because I don't get to see any of the feedback for it.
And then this August, this month has marked the 10 year anniversary for me and Hannah Alexander. It would have been the beginning of 2015 where she gave me permission for the first three. But then in August 2015 is when she came back and answered that email and I cried and called my mom. Um, this is when she gave me permission to continue working with her and we were able to take off and do what we're doing now. Hannah's a super nice person and I'm - I'm very happy to have this route, uh, with my life.
I already had stuff planned for August. So, I'm putting the sale at the beginning of September. It's going to be September 5th, 6th, and 7th. And it's going to be, I believe, the biggest discount that I've ever given on patterns. Uh, it's going to be essentially a 50% off on most of these designs. How I'm setting it up is it's going to be $10 off all of the designs that are on the on sale page. This includes the brand new Pokémon designs, but it does not include patterns that are already $10, right? Like the Cat Luna and Artemis, um, some of the smaller stuff. But most of, like, the princesses are $20. So you could get $10 off.
I very rarely run sales. So, uh, I - you know, if you've been eyeing designs for a while, this is a super good time to jump in here and get in on this. If you go to the on sale page right now, you can see what's going to be available. You can preload them up in your cart and that coupon will go live on September 5th and it should run through the night of September 7th. I might have set some wiggle room on that just because I was afraid of time zones. Uh, if you want to try it a little early or, you know, live on the edge and try it a little late. Haha.
With the 10 year sale, our anniversary here, I've been doing a revamp process through these really old designs, right? The first patterns - Belle, Merida, and Rapunzel - obviously, I didn't have like a good rhythm going because it was the first trio, but like now I have some kind of, like, standard stuff that I do like where I put the numbers for the skin from darkest to lightest, right? It'll say, like, number one for 402 and seven or nine for 3770, right? And I try to make that pretty consistent throughout my patterns now versus back then where I was just kind of - whatever symbol I thought would work.
So, the revamp is, uh, revisiting all of that and it's - it's been - it's been a lot of work. Um, I went back to Hannah's early concept art basically for, like, Ariel. Um, I brought those other recolors back in. Those are now included in the Ariel PDF. I did a really big rework for Moana. Moana was the first design that I worked on after my alteration shop closed. She had a lot of work that needed done. So, I'm very happy to revisit her. We really upped her contrast, Mom and I. I changed out the stitched braids for, um, some basically embroidered braids. They're going to be, um, like, real braids. And there's a tutorial inside the the zip file for Moana that includes that. Just overall, she's going to have, like, real tassels instead of stitched tassels. It's going to be very cool. It'll be very worth the effort.
So, getting these renewed, revamped 2025 edition PDFs, it's not going to cost anything. You don't have to re-buy your patterns. Uh, it's a free thing that I'm doing. There's an update form. You can find the link on makeitpink.net there. I'm sure it'll be down in the description somewhere. You can fill out the form. Give me as much information as you can about the pattern that you need. Um, and I - when it's ready, I will make sure to send it your way.
So, the new patterns that I just put out for Hannah Alexander are included in this sale. So, this includes Cubone, Pikachu, Eevee, Gastly, Gengar, and Mimikyu. It does not include the new Eevee in the Flowers because that's a smaller design that's already $10.
There is a new tutorial that's free, uh, for tacking down ribbon. Quite a few of my designs use Kreinik ribbon now. So, I thought I should probably include that now instead of just assuming people can figure that out.
Upcoming patterns, there's the Early Access Patreon, which is the Kodamas that I mentioned earlier. The Kodama pattern is set to release at the beginning of November or the end of October. Either way. Maybe they'll release for Halloween 'cause they're little glowing weird guys.
There is the one that I'm working on in this video here. The Zelda Halo is going to release at the end of November or beginning of December, depending on what my holiday situation is.
There's a pattern that I worked on. It's called Bisexuality. Uh, this was some original artwork from 1974 by an artist named Richard Ellescas. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. This was a private commission that was done and we agreed after a certain amount of time that I would be able to release this to everyone else. As far as I can tell, this artist isn't really online. I don't see that anyone owns the copyright for this to contact. This specific piece of art was used, um, I believe it was a cover for Cosmopolitan magazine. Again, as near as myself and the commissioner could find, Cosmopolitan doesn't seem to work with or really be involved with this artist anymore. I don't see them like posting this art. I don't see it mentioned, you know, anywhere except, like, archival stuff. So, to the best of my ability, I believe that this is okay to release. If it becomes an issue, obviously, I'll take it back down, but this is set to release, uh, mid-September.
Uh, Grace Kinkle, I - I think I'm saying that right. She gave me another piece to work with. Uh, it's a really cute little opossum sheriff, little cowboy guy. She did the cats and flowers artwork that I did a couple of months back. And so, I'm really, really happy to add this extra little cute guy.
And then my next pattern that I'll be working on directly will be Alphonse Mucha's Moon from the Moon and Stars series. This was due to be my big August project, but then with the 10 year anniversary thing, I was like, set it aside, get this done, you know, here we are. But this will be the next big pattern to come out.
Uh, and then there will be a little bit of a pattern break, uh, while I work on a physical commission.
I don't want to spoil the surprise, but since my last YouTube video, since I've released all these Pokemon designs here, and all of this has happened, I did do three other Hannah Alexander designs. I think it was almost a 100 hours of work total, but I can't tell you what they are yet. Haha. Um, very frustrating. I would like to, but I gotta hold back. There's just so many other things happening right now. But there, do you know what? Be assured, there are three other designs fully completed. Right now. I just have to keep it a secret right now.
So, according to the recording time here, I actually have some spare time, which is cool. I thought this was going to take me way longer to talk about this big list of stuff. So, I'm going to go into a little bit of depth on the patterns that I've released recently.
I think Cubone is a standout design. The Cubone especially is so cool. I just she - it's just so good. It's just so good! I had talked initially with Alice Roy about potentially some 3D printed coins for her - the belt and her, uh, the boots there, but we decided nah 'cause two 3D printed pieces for one design seemed a little, uh, overboard. But I had a really good time putting that together, making sure all the stripes and stuff on like her corset worked. And then I wasn't going to do the shiny. I wasn't going to do green Cubone - 'cause - 'cause who's going to stitch green Cubone? But then when I put it together - 'cause there's there's so many shades of DMC green to work with - when I put the green onto Cubone, I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. Like, this really works? Like, this really looks good." Um, very surprising 'cause I don't think green Cubone as a Pokemon looks good. But as this outfit, as this Hannah Alexander art, I'm here for it. This - it's super cool. I'm very into the shiny Cubone.
Eevee. I knew from the start that I was going to be doing the shiny version of the Eevee, but in the design notes that Hannah left, uh, she had a blonde version. That was a little bit of extra fun to make the blonde Eevee. And then working out what I wanted to change for the shiny Eevee. Like her leaves in the initial design are very autumnal, which makes sense and works really well for Eevee. But, when I switched her palette to that cool blues, purples, and silvers, I was like, I - I think the green will work a lot better. Mom was a lot of help picking like new eye colors, and the new hair colors and whatnot. It was very cool, bringing the shiny Eevee to life.
The Eevee in Flowers small design was a lot simpler. I pulled the shiny Eevee colors from the last time I worked on shiny Eevee with Hanae Kariko's artwork. So, that one wasn't as complicated to put together. Initially, like with the cosplay Eevee design, I had left the flowers just the orange and yellows, and I was like, mmm right, too, it's just too off with the blues and silvers. So, I changed those flowers out, too.
Gastly is super cool. I like - I really liked this design as well. I like that it's just like a big - like, this - this would feel, um, majestic to wear, I think. It's so fluffy and there's so many layers happening. I was kind of concerned about putting this pattern together 'cause I was having flashbacks of Boosette's layering and I was like, "Oh no." But it actually worked out pretty good because, uh, the way Hannah did the artwork, it's a very consistent shade, you know, from the center out. And even though we - we're pretty limited on our purples, I think Mom pulled this this, uh, gradient out very nicely.
I kept trying to remove the face from the belly. My boyfriend convinced me that, um, it's kind of needed and I was like, "But - but her face is the face. She doesn't need a second face on her stomach." But, um, I guess if you don't want to stitch the face, there's nothing stopping you from covering that up because, I would. I would cover up the face.
The shiny version was quite easy, uh, because DMC has tons of blue to work with. So that was nice. And then I got it stuck in my head that like this would be pretty fun to rainbow up. I made this mockup and I don't know - I don't know how this would really stitch out but, um, I think it looks very pretty on my screen. If someone wanted to do like a cheerful happy Gastly, um, you can steal this idea. You could stitch this and show me and that would be so cool.
I tried really hard to get the shiny Gengar to work. Shiny Gengar is not that different from regular Gengar's palette. And we're already super limited on our DMC purples. When you mega evolve Gengar, it turns, like, white and pink. And I was trying everything to make it work. And I just I couldn't get it. And I was really bummed out 'cause I wanted a white and pink Gengar, but it just - it looked dorky as heck. So maybe someone out there that's more creative than I can bring that together. And maybe you'll share your palette with me and I can make it an official release kind of a thing. But I - I couldn't get the shiny mega Gengar to happen.
Mimikyu was way faster than I expected it to be because it's mostly straight lines. The pattern itself was very fast to make. And then the shiny version of Mimikyu, I guess, used to be just slightly different, but in the new versions, it's like a gho - like a bed sheet ghost, right? It's like white-white. And so that was really fun to just, whoop! Switch it over to those monochrome whites and grays.
Pikachu is another one of the ones that I did this past, uh, release. I think Pikachu turned out pretty cute. Uh, there was a lot more stitching detail in Hannah's original artwork for, um, those really bright lightning bolt designs that are all over the top of the dress. I decided that it would be very annoying to stitch and I was going to let the texture of the sparkly thread that exists there shine more and not cover it with so much, uh, extra stitching. Otherwise, it was a pretty straightforward pattern. Um, again, lots of straight lines, so it was pretty quick.
And you can see, obviously here on the side, all of my work with the Zelda Halo design. The reason it took twelve hours to pick out colors for this is because she's mostly in shadow. I had played with the idea of just eliminating that background, the clouds, because, um, I'm sure you saw how long it took me to line them and color them and get it figured out. But, without that halo of clouds behind her, the rest of the design wouldn't make sense. Uh, her skin is like this kind of off shade. Her hair is, um, not as blonde as you would expect, perhaps. The blues and greens that are in her dress are much more subdued. All of her colors lean a direction you don't really expect them to lean in thread. And so it was quite difficult to pull that out and make that happen. Mom and I went really back and forth on that for a while.
And then she's got this fancy little secret stone on her necklace. And Alice Roy has come to our rescue. She's been working on a 3D printed version of this stone, uh, as a little bonus thing that we can work into our stitching. She's gone through a couple of variations on it, but we're at, I think, near the end and that should be ready by the time the pattern releases, so people can just pick it up.
Maggie has been test stitching the Zelda Halo for me. Again, the colors were - were really freaking me out. And I was like, "look that, you know, these aren't the colors I normally use for skin. These aren't the colors I normally use for hair. Everything looks pretty weird. Can you please test it?" Is not how it went down. Hahaha! I - I showed her what I was working on and she, uh, she begged me to test stitch and I was like, "Sure, the colors are weird. Go for it. Have it - have as much done as you can after Thanksgiving so that I can get it out."
And she's been very diligent about it. She's pointed out a couple of, like, empty stitches, um, that I left in on accident. She's been very diligently sending along progress photos and it looks really good. I'm very happy with the results on this and I thank her greatly for stitching this for us so that we can all see it come together.
Well, I thought I would talk more, but I guess that does it. Thank you all again.
Please don't forget the sale that's happening, uh, September 5th, 6th, and 7th. $10 off all of the applicable patterns. If you're able, please join the Patreon. If not for the Early Access designs, just to support me and my goals here doing art. And if you can't follow every social media ever, because who can, sign up for the newsletter and never miss a pattern release again.
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